archive

Insanely topical

From The Futurist, a series on 2020 visionaries: Andrew Hessel showcases his vision for open-source drug manufacturing and Robert Freitas details the medical future of nanorobotics; Janna Anderson and Mark Bauerlein present two distinct visions for education in the twenty-first century; Cory Ondrejka and Andrew Keen on how the Internet will redefine culture in the next 10 years; and Roy Speckhardt and Ayya Gotami on how spirituality, science, and the Internet may influence one another in the decades ahead. Lionel Shriver's health care novel So Much for That just so happens to be insanely topical. Blame Canada, for it has made, by way of protest and free-speech ignorance, a martyr out of wingnut Ann Coulter — which is about the stupidest thing a country can do these days. From the Enfield Poltergeist to the most haunted pub in England, Gary Day has still to see proof of ghosts. From Dissent's new blog "Arguing the World", Michael Walzer on what ought to be done, and Richard Wolin on an age of identity politics. Antoine de Saint Exupery wrote his classic, world-famous novella The Little Prince in 1943, but he was even more famous for his other career as an aviator. Priests and Pedophilia: A look at what authoritarian religion, families and schools have wrought. From Vice, a special issue on fashion, including an interview with the Kaiser himself, Karl Lagerfeld (and more); and an article on the return of the hat. One wonders how George Orwell avoided despair — hadn't he read Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom? Growing Up Gaga: The self-invented, manufactured, accidental, totally on-purpose New York creation of the world’s biggest pop star. Are essays viable in the twenty-first century? Quotidiana author Patrick Madden sure hopes so. Hitler is long gone but Mein Kampf still haunts.